Russell Dickerson Co-Hosts 9/13-14

The co-host this wknd is Russell Dickerson, who’s in our Top 5 with “Matters To Me.” His new album, “Famous Back Home,” was just released. He’s about to kick off his fall Russellmania tour.

Russell told Lon this story about a song on his new album called “Never Leave:” “Somebody played me this song, but told me Thomas Rhett had it on hold.  I loved the song.  Then Thomas came over to my house to play me his record. We listened to the whole thing, and he didn’t cut ‘Never Leave.’  So I told my producer, ‘I wanna record it.’ That’s how it ended up on my album.”

While on the subject of Thomas Rhett, Russell had another story: “I was on a plane with Thomas recently, and he was playing me some new songs.  When we came to one, he said, ‘I think this is my best song since Die a Happy Man.’  He played it for me, and it’s very good.  It’s not out yet. This happened just a few weeks ago.  But it’s very good.”

The video for Happen To Me features a marching band. “I was a band kid, I was a band nerd in high school.  I played snare drum all four years. Us & the cheerleaders had a thing.  It was like High School Musical.  On pep rally days, we’d all march up and down the hallways.”

Russell recently got to hang out with Luke Combs: “My wife and his wife are good friends.  So they had us over for one of his kid’s birthday parties. We’d never been out there before. It was a chill day.  Got to talk about life on the road. Especially an artist who prioritizes his family.  That got my attention.  He was saying how he took time off to be with his family. It struck me that I should do that.”

Russell told Lon he knew Shaboozey before Bar Song.  He told Lon: “We share a manager, and they played me his music. I could feel the passion they put into their music.  I felt it was something special.  It’s great to believe in somebody and see them do well. That was a drastic change. He played Bat Song when he toured with me in March, and by May it was the biggest song in the world.”

Russell also has great stories this week about Sam Hunt, George Birge, Drew Baldridge, Keith Urban, and Dylan Marlowe.

NEXT WEEK: Hardy

Tags: featured

Category: CO-HOST